so look me in the eyes, dear, and know my love is true
by katanafleet
Summary: "Would you care to… try this again?" he asks slowly. "Like boyfriend and girlfriend Barney and Robin, but better?" Robin smiles. He can feel something he thinks could be joy radiating from her. Maybe it's just from him. She loops her arm through his. "I think so," she says. "As long as it ends better this time." "Or maybe it'll never end at all."


Visions of Robin fly through his brain. The moment he first saw her. When they first smoked cigars together. Her smile when he called her gorgeous. The tears as he watched her mourn first Ted then Simon. The taste of her lips as "Sandcastles in the Sand" played in the background. The years and years of wishing she could be his when they tried and couldn't do it but they _never_ stopped thinking about each other.

He sees each of these clearly, and he runs faster.

Finally Barney arrives at the restaurant so aptly named, panting and wishing he could run like he did in that marathon so long ago. Robin's still sitting, and Nick is standing above her, kissing her neck.

He wants to run him through with a spork.

He bursts in the door.

"Don't talk till tomorrow morning," he hears Robin murmur.

"Okay," Nick agrees readily.

"She can't go home with you, Nick." He stops in front of them. Nick's right hand is resting on Robin's and his left is leaning on the back of her chair. Too close, too close—

"Barney—" Robin starts, but he can't let her finish her sentence.

"Why not?" Nick demands.

He glances down at Robin, the woman he loves, the girl he's always loved. Then he looks back at Nick. "Because Robin and I are in love."

He swears he can hear suspenseful yet romantic music as the two stare at him in shock.

"Barney, what are you doing here?" Robin finally asks.

"Taking care of something you clearly can't do on your own." Robin rolls her eyes. He looks back at Nick. He can't decide whether he's getting desperate or confident. "I'm sorry, but you and Robin are done."

"What? Robin, what is this?" Nick motions toward him like he's the husband who walked in on the wife and her woe begotten lover.

Robin throws her hand up in the air to dismiss Nick and looks back at him. Her eyes shoot darts at him. God, he loves her. "Okay, Barney, look, I know what you're doing, okay. Please stop."

He knows his expression says _Seriously, Robin_? He looks back at Nick. It's easier to say all this if he's not looking at the woman who can save him or condemn him. "Robin doesn't want to hurt your feelings because you're a nice guy." Nick nods, accepting this as fact. "But—she thinks you're stupid, and she hates you." He looks back down at Robin, smiles, nods. "You're welcome."

"Stop doing this," Robin says, nearly begging. Maybe he's out of control? No, he's gone this far, he's going to keep going.

"I love her, Nick," he says, his face hardening into complete and utter seriousness.

"Look, he doesn't love me! He's just saying this because he thinks that—" Does she honestly think that? Fine. Time for the real speech.

He takes a deep breath and starts. "I love everything about her, and I'm not a guy who says that lightly, I'm a guy who has faked love his entire life, I'm a guy who thought love was just something idiots thought they felt, but this woman has a hold on my heart that I could not break if I wanted to." This is what he composed as he ran to Splitsville. But the next words just spill out like water through a peaceful creek. "And there have been times when I wanted to."

Nora, Kevin, and Quinn's faces race through his mind. He doesn't take his eyes off Nick's nose—nice cheekbones, man—but he feels Robin's gaze rest on his face. "It has been… overwhelming and humbling, and even painful at times… but I could not stop loving her any more than I could stop _breathing_."

Robin's eyes soften. Does she believe him? Time for the final words. "I'm hopelessly, irretrievably in love with her." He takes a shaking breath. "More than she knows."

They all stand for a moment in silence. Robin's eyes, half-filled with tears. Nick's face, weirdly oblivious and slightly amused. His heart, open at last, broken and bleeding and carving lines into his own visage.

"Robin? Is this true?" Robin opens her mouth but Nick beats her to an answer. "No, I don't believe you," he laughs. He takes a step back and points at Barney. He can only roll his eyes, trying not to look at Robin.

"You said he didn't love you—you said _you_ didn't love _him_! What's wrong with this guy?" Barney stares at Nick, glances at Robin, makes a decision.

He steps forward abruptly as Nick takes another step back. He lets his fingers fly of their own volition into Robin's hair, lets his lips land on Robin's slightly-agape mouth, lets his hands pull her closer until there's no space between them.

Robin doesn't react for a split second, and he almost pulls back, terrified that he's completely miscalculated. Maybe Robin doesn't love him, doesn't want him, doesn't need him, actually wants to be with Nick of the nice cheekbones but empty head space the size of Australia. But then she grabs his lapels and yanks him closer, and this is exactly what he remembers.

For those five seconds of pure bliss, he remembers what it was like to date Robin Scherbatsky. What it was like to be completely in love with Robin Scherbatsky. To wake up every morning knowing she'd be there, knowing he was hers, knowing they'd be okay for at least another day.

Robin pulls away when Nick lets out a loud sob. Barney realizes with some contrition that it's actually real, the tears running down his face are actually of a genuine nature.

"It's true, Nick," Robin says with a little shame. He rests his hand on her back. She stiffens with the slight shock of contact but relaxes almost immediately.

"Oh, wow. It feels like I have a pulled groin muscle—in my heart." He ends the touching line with a sob. Nick collapses at the table of a girl who looks weirdly like a bimbo-vampire from _Buffy_.

"Nick, I'm so sorry, I just think that maybe—"

The blonde one speaks. "Pardon me," she asks, wails smothering every syllable. "But did you just have your heart broken?"

"I just got my heart broken too!" a brunette from another table cries.

All three of them cry for a moment and Barney and Robin stare. "Well, do the two of you—want to come back to my place?" Nick asks.

"Yes!" the bimbos say, still crying but obviously fine as they snatch at Nick's hands. Nick leaves with two women on his arms.

Robin turns to him once the crying people leave the restaurant. "Was all of that necessary?"

Barney glances down at his shoes. "Probably not. I just wanted to make a point." A point he meant completely sincerely. But possibly overdone? No. It was awesome. "I will admit, I hadn't planned on kissing you when I ran over here. I wasn't expecting Nick to put up any sort of resistance to this guy." He motions down his body.

Robin laughs, takes a step closer. He wraps his arms around her waist and pulls her near. She sobers as she fiddles with his lapel. He loves this coat so much. "Was all of that true?" she asks uncertainly.

He kisses her again, lightning fast. He pulls away to rest his forehead on hers. "Every word," he whispers.

She grins, then pulls him back to her mouth.

Then they get thrown out of the restaurant for too much PDA.

As they're walking hand-in-hand back to Robin's apartment, he takes a deep breath. Robin glances at him. "What is it?"

"Would you care to… try this again?" he asks slowly. "Like boyfriend and girlfriend Barney and Robin, but better?"

Robin smiles. He can feel something he thinks could be joy radiating from her. Maybe it's just from him. She loops her arm through his. "I think so," she says. "As long as it ends better this time."

He stops, and she turns to look at him. Her smile is uncertain, but his grows as he looks at her. He sees each of the moments that worked, each one that failed, the moments that made him fall in love and the moments that made him a villain. But each memory is proof of his complete and utter love for Robin Scherbatsky, and he knows he never wants to let her go.

"Or maybe it'll never end at all."

She stares at him with what looks like stars in her eyes, and he knows his own eyes mirror hers. She pulls him in for another kiss. They stand in the streets for a few more minutes. Soon, Robin shivers and he hails a cab to take them home.

The moment he knows he'll cherish until his dying breath—and let's face it, he'll still see it then—is when they're lying in Robin's bed, still mostly clothed save his shirt, and they're gazing into each other's eyes. It's totally one of those sappy things Marshall and Lily would enjoy, but he loses himself in her eyes and _God_ , he wants to ask her to marry him right now.

Maybe not now. In a few weeks. As soon as possible. But not right now. They have all the time in the world.

Robin's eyes begin to droop and he kisses her forehead, ready to pull her closer and watch her fall asleep in his arms. That seems like heaven.

Then her eyes shoot open again. "Did you cancel the Robin and Patrice BFF Fun Day invite?"

Barney winces, but even the threat of Robin's glare can't erase his smile. "You know what I forgot to do?"

He has a feeling that the smile will never leave his face.


End file.
